Benedict's radical action and sense of urgency for doing so makes more sense in the light of excerpts from what then Fr. Ratzinger stated in a series of 1969-70 radios addresses on German and Vatican radio. These were published in 2009 in the book, Faith and the Future.
“The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.
She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes…she will lose many of her social privileges…. As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members…."
This is a revelation to me. I didn't know that he had written anything in this vein but I see the truth in it and expect to see this kind of radical change played out soon. In fact...at the local level we're already seeing it in dioceses across the western world as parishes and schools are closed and consolidated. But I expect to see it on a grander scale.
If you really start digging you will be surprised and fascinated by many of the writings of the former Cardinal Ratzinger. Not always in an agreeable way I might add.
My local Diocese may indeed shrink to 200 Latin Mass adherents meeting at a church across town. Is that a good thing for the world and society? Personally I think not.
read post 1 and 2
Benedict XVI’s prediction is nothing new and novel, but tracks perfectly with St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 11 verse 5 (”Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.”)
--------------------------------------
“There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord's hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14).”
Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est